Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Here's Why Kraft Heinz Rises More Than 19% in Three Months

Read MoreHide Full Article

Kraft Heinz (KHC - Free Report) appears to be in solid shape, courtesy of higher demand from retail customers, owing to greater at-home consumption amid the outbreak. Notably, the burgeoning demand aided the company’s second-quarter 2020 results, wherein both top and bottom lines rose year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Apart from these, Kraft Heinz is benefiting from solid growth endeavors, including robust product development and pricing efforts. Also, the company’s enterprise transformation plans bode well.

Analysts seem optimistic regarding the stock’s performance. Thus, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 earnings has moved up 10.6% to $2.60 in the past 30 days. Notably, shares of the company have gained 19.4% in the past three months compared with the industry’s growth of 13.2%.

 

 

Factors Working in Favor of Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz’s pricing initiatives are yielding results. In the second quarter, overall pricing was up 2.2 percentage points, driven by reduced promotional activities. During the quarter, pricing in the United States moved up 2.3 percentage points. In Canada, pricing rose 1.3 percentage points due to a higher list price in several categories as well as reduced promotional activities. Within International markets pricing improved 2.6 percentage points.

Further, Kraft Heinz is focused on improving the performance of its key brands like Heinz, Kraft and Planters. Management earlier outlined that the company will make significant investments in marketing, go-to-market capabilities and product development. It is on track with identifying areas that hold significant growth opportunities and is undertaking product-development efforts. Moreover, management is undertaking steps to boost the e-commerce channel. Such well-chalked-out actions have been aiding growth across several business categories.

In order to ramp up overall business, Kraft Heinz laid down certain enterprise transformation strategies. In this context, the company is on track to build efficiency across its supply chain, with particular emphasis on procurement, manufacturing and distribution. In third-quarter 2019, management implemented nine transformational projects to strengthen some of the core areas of the business. Among them, five projects were directed toward bolstering the top line, two for enhancing operational efficiencies and the remaining for increasing effectiveness.

In terms of cost savings, the company has been increasing visibility and control of its cost components, especially in areas such as marketing and e-commerce. It is also keeping a close watch on investments made for enhancing sales and customer services. Further, Kraft Heinz is on track with examining its SKU’s to remove complexities and boost mix.

Wrapping Up

The company is witnessing a rise in selling, general and administrative expenses along with increased costs related to the coronavirus pandemic. Also, Kraft Heinz is seeing softness in its Canada business. Apart from this, volatility in foreign exchange rates is a threat to its performance.

Nonetheless, we believe that the aforementioned upsides are likely to help this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company to remain in investors’ good books.

3 Better-Ranked Food Stocks

TreeHouse Foods (THS - Free Report) , with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 7.7%.You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

B&G Foods (BGS - Free Report) , with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 6.9%, on average.

Flowers Foods (FLO - Free Report) , with a Zacks Rank #2, has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 8.2%, on average.

Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential

The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.

Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better.

See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>


Zacks' 7 Best Strong Buy Stocks (New Research Report)


Valued at $99, click below to receive our just-released report
predicting the 7 stocks that will soar highest in the coming month.


Click Here, It's Really Free

Published in